This may come as a complete shock to some of you but I've been noticing something lately. It has to do with the amount of money required for one to leave the grocery store with even a few precious bags of eatables. In addition to those (not so sneaky) rising prices there seems to be an equally disturbing demand for food around my house. Seriously that whole "supply and demand" thing they taught is business math back in 9th grade, there's something to that. So I've taken to searching out ways to solve (or at least minimize the damage of) this issue. That's not to say that I was really a money waster before, it's just that I figure there are always ways to do better.
It's been about a year now since I've started making my laundry soap. No, we don't eat that but it is a HUGE money saver!!! I even tried fabric softener once.
That started my "thinking outside the box." What else could I make for pennies instead of purchase for big bucks???? There is the basic bread, granola, applesauce....but I wanted to go a step farther. My sis-in-law told me her success story about homemade beef jerky and I couldn't wait to try it. To my delight it's really quite simple to do and my husband is cheering this one on for sure!!!
There it is! After 24 hours in a simple marinade, it spent about 6-8 hours hanging out (literally) here one night and that's all there is to it. It takes a little time to slice it thin and hang it up but in the end we're talking $6 for a pound of beef jerky instead of $26.
Then one day this week I stumbled across a recipe for homemade English Muffins. (Never thought of makin' those before but it sounded kinda fun so I gave it a spin.) I didn't have any corn meal on hand so I had to wait few days till I could get to the store. It's really kinda ridiculous how excited I was about my $1.29 purchase.
Once again they were really not hard and one recipe gave me 18 for about $1 worth of ingredients. (At least as close as I could figure. Exactly how much does a 1/4 teaspoon of salt cost??) AND double bonus, they taste WAY better than those store bought ones!
So those are my latest ventures. I'm looking for some new ideas again?? What do YOU make that I might not have tried yet??
I've also been trying to learn the CVS game. That's a story for another time but here's this weeks haul.
THIS is what I'm up against! =)
It's been about a year now since I've started making my laundry soap. No, we don't eat that but it is a HUGE money saver!!! I even tried fabric softener once.
That started my "thinking outside the box." What else could I make for pennies instead of purchase for big bucks???? There is the basic bread, granola, applesauce....but I wanted to go a step farther. My sis-in-law told me her success story about homemade beef jerky and I couldn't wait to try it. To my delight it's really quite simple to do and my husband is cheering this one on for sure!!!
There it is! After 24 hours in a simple marinade, it spent about 6-8 hours hanging out (literally) here one night and that's all there is to it. It takes a little time to slice it thin and hang it up but in the end we're talking $6 for a pound of beef jerky instead of $26.
Finished Product!
Then one day this week I stumbled across a recipe for homemade English Muffins. (Never thought of makin' those before but it sounded kinda fun so I gave it a spin.) I didn't have any corn meal on hand so I had to wait few days till I could get to the store. It's really kinda ridiculous how excited I was about my $1.29 purchase.
Once again they were really not hard and one recipe gave me 18 for about $1 worth of ingredients. (At least as close as I could figure. Exactly how much does a 1/4 teaspoon of salt cost??) AND double bonus, they taste WAY better than those store bought ones!
So stinkin' cute! How could you turn down this kind of help?
You should have seen the little "victory dance" that came with permission to do this job!
So those are my latest ventures. I'm looking for some new ideas again?? What do YOU make that I might not have tried yet??
I've also been trying to learn the CVS game. That's a story for another time but here's this weeks haul.
Grand total $5.45! Yeah! That more like it!
Hi! I just clicked over to your blog from another and I just had to post on this! I have 7 kids so I am always looking for ways to cut costs too. And I have 4 boys and they eat NON STOP! I do the laundry soap and we do pancakes and waffles from scratch and they are really easy and cheap. I also do muffins and granola bars for lunches that are cheaper than store bought and better for you. I do a little cvs-ing but only here and there. I totally get your days! They sound like mine!
ReplyDeleteAmy, thanks for stopping by and thanks for the ideas!! I do most of those things too. Although we are blessed with lots of discount stores around here so I can't always make granola bars cheaper than I can get them there. I do like the "better for you" part of homemade anything though! I tried to find you but couldn't get anything more than your profile.
ReplyDeleteOk, sorry Amy, I found you now!
ReplyDelete